Transform your building into a Smart Building. Learn how the IoT and sensor-based intelligence is transforming facilities into a more cost effective operation . . . Read More

LED Lighting

EDE sells interior and exterior LED fixtures for Parking Lot Decks and Structures: Wall Packs, Uplighting/Flood, Canopy Fixtures, Highbay (for manufacturing and warehouse), Food Manufacturers, Distribution Centers, Grocery Stores, Office Buildings, Ski Resorts, New Construction, and Car Dealerships. Our pricing is in the dollar-per-watt range. We purchase by the container and if you are looking for any of the mentioned fixtures, please ask us for a quote.

Lighting and Safety

Companies today have profits and safety as their highest priority. Despite this, so few companies truly understand the importance of light in the workplace safety equation. The 1st step to remedy this is to contact a lighting professional to help you test in your facility’s light levels.

The color and distribution of the light also play a big role in a proper lit workplace. If you would like to learn more about lighting, lighting for your business and or how lighting impacts your team’s work performance, we can help.

If you have a difficult manufacturing environment with high ceilings, piping and electrical hardware that block the lighting or just a general big box with other challenges, this is where our design team and engineers thrive. If you have 10,000 sq ft or 1,000,000 sq ft, we can help you implement the most cost-effective lighting solutions that will not only reduce your lighting costs, but also your demand charges while also improving safety and improving quality control.

The following are the light levels we recommend for our various clients:

Educational: 50 – 75 footcandles

Manufacturing: 50 footcandles or greater depending on the task. The general light level throughout the manufacturing space should be 50FC, with packaging, label, die repair and other fine task areas at higher light levels.

Distribution or Warehouse: 25 footcandles in all general and racking areas and 40-50 footcandles in loading docks.

Food Manufacturing: 50 – 100 footcandles

Banking: 50 footcandles

Restaurants: 20 – 50 footcandles (depending on the environment)

Grocery and Retail Stores: 50 – 100 footcandles

Parking Structures: 15-25 footcandles

Exterior Parking Lots: 10 – 20 footcandles

Car Dealerships: 25 – 100 footcandles

5 Biggest Mistakes

Since 2008, our experience and operating history selling solar, LED lighting controls, and LED have taught us the following:

Price Driving the Buying Decision . . . too many companies buy the lowest cost solution and don’t take into account the cost of operating the new LED lighting system. We refer to this as the Cost of Ownership. The upfront costs of the new LED lighting system only make up 5% of the total cost of ownership of the lighting system over its useful life (25 years). 90% of the costs of the new lighting system over its useful life is energy costs. The remaining 5% is the cost of maintaining the LED lighting system. With ENERGY making up 90% of the lighting system costs, it is essential to install the most energy-efficient system possible… not the lowest cost solution.

Installing Dumb LED fixtures . . . LED fixtures are designed to be dimmed or turned off without impacting the life of the LED. Unlike fluorescent, where the life of the lamp decreases when switched on and off. A simple motion and daylight harvesting sensor ($50.00) added to an LED fixture increases the energy savings by up to 30% and increases the lifespan of the LED fixture. We see 90% of competition selling LED fixtures without a sensor, leaving a lot of money on the table. At EDE, we install lighting controls in 80% of our projects because our project owners want the lowest cost of ownership lighting solution. Just remember that lighting controls save an additional 30 – 50% more energy than a dumb LED fixture. Ask your utility rep or someone at your utility who works with lighting controls.

1 for 1 Replacement . . . If you have 300 fixtures in your facility today, chances are we can reduce your fixture counts by 10-20% percent through our photometric drawings and the efficiency of LED fixtures. Remember, today, LED fixtures are averaging in the 160 LPW range where fluorescent is in the 80-100 LPW range. More light for less energy. A 1 for 1 replacement of your fluorescent fixtures could be a waste of upfront capital and cost more to operate. Having a lighting professional help you with your layout and design could save you upfront, and will certainly decrease the cost of ownership of the new lighting system.

Over Lighting . . . if your current light level is 30 footcandles of light, do you need to go to 50-60 footcandles of light? Most likely not, increasing light levels by 20 – 30% is a mistake if it is not necessary. It is a big waste of energy and added cost for the next 25 years. We see this too often, unfortunately. We recommend you take your time upfront and flush out all the details and make sure you have the person you are purchasing your lighting from put in 4 – 6 test fixtures and measure the light levels to ensure you will not be wasting a lot of energy and money.

Installing LED Tubes . . . while LED tubes are cheap and it is a quick fix, the reliability and longevity of the LED tubes are not proven. In fact, they have proven to have a lifespan of around three years, depending on the environment. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of LED tube recalls because of tube failure and even fires. When you just take a simple look at the design of the LED tube light, it doesn’t make sense. LEDs are sensitive to heat. The LED tube is a glass-enclosed chamber that does not allow any heat dissipation. The heat in the chamber over time decreases the life of the diodes and in some cases breaks the glass and this is where the fires start.

Why Change

Taking better care of your workforce/team and reducing waste are two great reasons. Today, every dollar counts and businesses are under constant pressure to cut costs and find new ways to profit. There is a very good chance that energy makes up 20% of your company’s monthly operating budget and is an area where you really could improve.

Over the past 10 years, electricity prices have been going up, while over this same period of time, the costs of coal and natural gas–the two major fuel sources for electric generation–have gone down. The costs of electricity will continue to increase as local and federal regulations and budgets make it almost impossible to add new power plants. This is why for the past five years there has been such a big push among the utilities to implement energy saving measures and provide incentives for their clients to be more energy efficient.

The incentives are starting to go away and may be gone in a few years. This calendar year many of the major utilities implemented a reduction in their incentives. We see this trend continuing as more solar and wind generation comes online. Now is a good time to look into what you can do to reduce your energy costs.

What is Possible

Transform your building into a Smart Building. Learn how the IoT and sensor-based intelligence is transforming facilities into smarter, more productive, and safer workplaces while reducing energy waste and creating a more cost-effective operation.

If you have legacy fluorescent lighting today, please consider the following: intelligent LED reduces energy waste by 40% over an LED fixture without a sensor and gives your company the following:

Up to 94% energy reduction. We have several clients who have achieved this.

Improved environmental controls. LED controls today measure your facility temperature and moisture when that is important.